Raytheon's entry in the competition to create unmanned aircraft for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, known as the KillerBee, completed its first demonstration of combat capability this week.

This week, in the desert skies near Yuma, Ariz., the KillerBee unmanned aircraft system completed its first demonstration of combat capability, Raytheon Company spokesman John Nelson confirmed to PM.

The KillerBee UAV, as PopularMechanics.com first reported in March, is Raytheon's entry into the competition to create unmanned aircraft for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.

During Tuesday's test run, Raytheon crew members created a simulated combat experience for the KillerBee: They drove it out into the desert with Humvees, set up the system in less than 45 minutes, launched the aircraft and remotely guided it for about four hours. Nelson said that the success of the control software was the most important part of the demonstration—it was able to communicate with both Navy and Marine Corps computer systems.

Raytheon is now hurrying to meet the competition deadlines. Proposals are due in January, and the contract will be awarded in April. In the meantime, Nelson said, Raytheon will conduct other tests, including tests on its heavy-fuel engine. The company is trying to build a jet-fuel engine from scratch, rather than adapting a gas engine. "The services don't like to be juggling different kinds of fuel," Nelson said. "And they don't want gasoline around anyway, since it has such a low flash point."

Hopefully, Nelson said, these advances can give Raytheon an advantage. "This is a competition, of course," he said. The KillerBee is hoping to knock Boeing's battle-tested ScanEagle from its perch as the UAV of choice for Navy ships and the Marines. To stay competitive, Boeing is adding to ScanEagle's repertoire, including a synthetic aperture radar that can see through smoke, fog and sand, and, thanks to magnetic detectors, the ability to track submarines after being dropped from carrier aircraft.

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